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England handed a lesson in victory
England coach Tony Smith put on a brave face after watching his side struggle to get past minnows Papua New Guinea in the opening match of the World Cup.
Leeds winger Lee Smith scored a hat-trick of tries on debut but England's performance will hardly have defending champions Australia quaking in their boots ahead of next Sunday's clash in Melbourne.
The Kumuls threatened to pull off one of the biggest shocks in World Cup history when they scored three tries in a 21-minute spell to lead 16-12 at half-time but, when their first-half heroics took their toll, England pulled away to register an unconvincing victory.
"I'm glad we had a game," said Smith, who has maintained a 100 per cent record from his seven matches in charge of the national team.
"We found out a whole lot about ourselves, which is good.
"It's given us plenty to work on. We are going to have a busy week.
We're pretty rusty in some areas but to still find a way to come up with a victory is a great attribute to have.
"A lot of teams would fall in a hole in those situations. Tonight did us a whole lot of good."
St Helens winger Ade Gardner scored the first of his two tries after 11 minutes and Smith, Leeds' recent Grand Final hero, touched down for the first of his three as the match appeared to be going according to the script.
But the Kumuls overcame the loss of promising centre Jessie Joe Parker with an eye injury and they rallied superbly, inspired by evergreen Hull KR stand-off Stanley Gene, playing in his third successive World Cup.
"Stanley is full of enthusiasm and always does well for his team," said Smith, who coached the Kumuls legend at Huddersfield. "They should be very proud of him."
The islanders rattled England with their vigorous tackling and exciting ball-handling skills which captured the hearts of the locals in the 10,780 crowd.
Tries from Rod Griffin, Jason Chan and George Kepa were celebrated with unbridled joy by the unfancied Kumuls, who made England fight for every point in a thoroughly entertaining clash.
"With a team like New Guinea, if you give them the ball, they hurt you," said Smith.
"That's the way they play. They are passionate about rugby league and love to play with the ball in their hand.
"They scrambled well and their structure was a whole lot better than we had seen so there was a little bit of a surprise factor there."
Despite trailing at the break, Smith claims he was never worried about the outcome and insists the scare will not persuade him to abandon his commitment to expansive football.
"I don't worry too much about the scoreboard," he said. "It's an 80-minute game and I had a lot of confidence that we were going to have the right score at the end of the game.
"We needed to hang onto the ball. We had 12 sets in the first half and it's difficult to win a game of rugby league with that.
"We just put some pressure on ourselves on the tryline, trying to score on play one or two in the wrong way.
"Our choice of pass is more the concern than the expansive part of our game."
Smith's half-time pep talk appeared to shake his side from their lethargy, although they were grateful for assistance from Australian referee Shayne Hayne when he disallowed a try by winger David Moore for a marginal forward pass early in the second half.
"That was devastating," said Papua New Guinea coach Adrian Lam. "It would have put us 10 points ahead if we had got the conversion as well."
England, wearing black armbands in memory of the late Adam Watene, made the most of the let-off and tries from Smith and Martin Gleeson were greeted by sighs of relief from the 1,000 England fans in the Dairy Farmers Stadium.
A touch of class from Leon Pryce then set up Gardner for his second try and Smith completed his hat-trick after 71 minutes before Papua New Guinea produced the biggest cheer of the night by scoring the game's final try through Paul Aiton and captain John Wilshere kicked a third goal.
The match was a personal triumph for Lee Smith, although his defensive frailty was exposed by the clever kicking of Gene and his half-back partner Keith Peters.
"The boy took his opportunities and showed what he can do," said the coach.
"He's got some improvement as well but he was in the right spot and that's an art itself.
"I'm pleased for Lee. It's something he will always remember. Nobody can take that away from him."
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Weather for Leeds
Sunday 12 February 2012
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